John Oates
John Oates
John William Oates is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, musician, songwriter and record producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Hall & Oates...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth7 April 1948
CountryUnited States of America
stage
I like playing on stage, don't get me wrong.
together band playing-together
To me, when a great band is playing together, it's amazing for me.
early good life month personal record run songs videos year
We had a good run in the '70s but we got really big in the early '80s, ... It was a whirlwind. It was non-stop demands. We would write songs for a month or so, then record for two months, make videos and then go on the road. We put out a record a year from 1971 to 1985. We had more than one record some years. My personal life was my professional life. There was no down time.
became component decade persona
Having a mustache and never smiling became a permanent component of my persona through the quaintly self-important decade of the seventies.
alabama love shakes
I love what Alabama Shakes is doing - it's kind of like what grunge did to rock 'n' roll, they're doing to R&B.
coherent goes realized stuff stylistic
I realized if I'm not really making an album, I don't have to be concerned about things like stylistic consistency, pacing, a coherent mood. All that stuff goes out the window.
ok
If I had to drop everything and just be a songwriter, I would be OK with that because that's the real joy.
egos music seeing
I think in music and a lot of creative fields, people's egos get in the way of their ability of seeing the big picture.
bands certainly embraced
I think social media is so important; the young bands have certainly embraced that and used that to their advantage.
guy shaved
The mustache represented the old John; I didn't want to be that guy anymore, so I shaved it off. It was ritualistic in a way.
artist business extreme foot indie major music
I'm an indie artist with major distribution, so one foot in the extreme major music business and one foot in the abyss of indie artists.
christmas
The Christmas genre is a field that's been well-ploughed.
There's always a personal satisfaction in writing a song by yourself. You get the inspiration, and see it through, and you're done. It's focused and very personal.
others stay
Well, because we're so different as people. And it's that difference that probably also makes it easy to stay together, because we don't get in each others way.